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Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg paying a courtesy call on Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., in June 1993, before her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. AP/Marcy Nighswander


Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, the Supreme Court announced.

Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement that “Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature.”

Even before her appointment, she had reshaped American law. When he nominated Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, President Bill Clinton compared her legal work on behalf of women to the epochal work of Thurgood Marshall on behalf of African-Americans.

The comparison was entirely appropriate: As Marshall oversaw the legal strategy that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that outlawed segregated schools, Ginsburg coordinated a similar effort against sex discrimination.

Decades before she joined the court, Ginsburg’s work as an attorney in the 1970s fundamentally changed the Supreme Court’s approach to women’s rights, and the modern skepticism about sex-based policies stems in no small way from her lawyering. Ginsburg’s work helped to change the way we all think about women – and men, for that matter.

I’m a legal scholar who studies social reform movements and I served as a law clerk to Ginsburg when she was an appeals court judge. In my opinion – as remarkable as Marshall’s work on behalf of African-Americans was – in some ways Ginsburg faced more daunting prospects when she started.

Thurgood Marshall, in 1955, when he was the chief counsel for the NAACP. AP/Marty Lederhandler

Starting at zero

When Marshall began challenging segregation in the 1930s, the Supreme Court had rejected some forms of racial discrimination even though it had upheld segregation.

When Ginsburg started her work in the 1960s, the Supreme Court had never invalidated any type of sex-based rule. Worse, it had rejected every challenge to laws that treated women worse than men.

For instance, in 1873, the court allowed Illinois authorities to ban Myra Bradwell from becoming a lawyer because she was a woman. Justice Joseph P. Bradley, widely viewed as a progressive, wrote that women were too fragile to be lawyers: “The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator.”

And in 1908, the court upheld an Oregon law that limited the number of hours that women – but not men – could work. The opinion relied heavily on a famous brief submitted by Louis Brandeis to support the notion that women needed protection to avoid harming their reproductive function.

As late as 1961, the court upheld a Florida law that for all practical purposes kept women from serving on juries because they were “the center of the home and family life” and therefore need not incur the burden of jury service.

Challenging paternalistic notions

Ginsburg followed Marshall’s approach to promote women’s rights – despite some important differences between segregation and gender discrimination.

Segregation rested on the racist notion that Black people were less than fully human and deserved to be treated like animals. Gender discrimination reflected paternalistic notions of female frailty. Those notions placed women on a pedestal – but also denied them opportunities.

Either way, though, Black Americans and women got the short end of the stick.

Ginsburg started with a seemingly inconsequential case. Reed v. Reed challenged an Idaho law requiring probate courts to appoint men to administer estates, even if there were a qualified woman who could perform that task.

Sally and Cecil Reed, the long-divorced parents of a teenage son who committed suicide while in his father’s custody, both applied to administer the boy’s tiny estate.

The probate judge appointed the father as required by state law. Sally Reed appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Ginsburg did not argue the case, but wrote the brief that persuaded a unanimous court in 1971 to invalidate the state’s preference for males. As the court’s decision stated, that preference was “the very kind of arbitrary legislative choice forbidden by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.”

Two years later, Ginsburg won in her first appearance before the Supreme Court. She appeared on behalf of Air Force Lt. Sharron Frontiero. Frontiero was required by federal law to prove that her husband, Joseph, was dependent on her for at least half his economic support in order to qualify for housing, medical and dental benefits.

If Joseph Frontiero had been the soldier, the couple would have automatically qualified for those benefits. Ginsburg argued that sex-based classifications such as the one Sharron Frontiero challenged should be treated the same as the now-discredited race-based policies.

By an 8–1 vote, the court in Frontiero v. Richardson agreed that this sex-based rule was unconstitutional. But the justices could not agree on the legal test to use for evaluating the constitutionality of sex-based policies.

New York Times article about the Wiesenfeld case, which refers to Ginsburg as ‘a woman lawyer.’ New York Times

Strategy: Represent men

In 1974, Ginsburg suffered her only loss in the Supreme Court, in a case that she entered at the last minute.

Mel Kahn, a Florida widower, asked for the property tax exemption that state law allowed only to widows. The Florida courts ruled against him.

Ginsburg, working with the national ACLU, stepped in after the local affiliate brought the case to the Supreme Court. But a closely divided court upheld the exemption as compensation for women who had suffered economic discrimination over the years.

Despite the unfavorable result, the Kahn case showed an important aspect of Ginsburg’s approach: her willingness to work on behalf of men challenging gender discrimination. She reasoned that rigid attitudes about sex roles could harm everyone and that the all-male Supreme Court might more easily get the point in cases involving male plaintiffs.

She turned out to be correct, just not in the Kahn case.

Ginsburg represented widower Stephen Wiesenfeld in challenging a Social Security Act provision that provided parental benefits only to widows with minor children.

Wiesenfeld’s wife had died in childbirth, so he was denied benefits even though he faced all of the challenges of single parenthood that a mother would have faced. The Supreme Court gave Wiesenfeld and Ginsburg a win in 1975, unanimously ruling that sex-based distinction unconstitutional.

And two years later, Ginsburg successfully represented Leon Goldfarb in his challenge to another sex-based provision of the Social Security Act: Widows automatically received survivor’s benefits on the death of their husbands. But widowers could receive such benefits only if the men could prove that they were financially dependent on their wives’ earnings.

Ginsburg also wrote an influential brief in Craig v. Boren, the 1976 case that established the current standard for evaluating the constitutionality of sex-based laws.

Like Wiesenfeld and Goldfarb, the challengers in the Craig case were men. Their claim seemed trivial: They objected to an Oklahoma law that allowed women to buy low-alcohol beer at age 18 but required men to be 21 to buy the same product.

But this deceptively simple case illustrated the vices of sex stereotypes: Aggressive men (and boys) drink and drive, women (and girls) are demure passengers. And those stereotypes affected everyone’s behavior, including the enforcement decisions of police officers.

Under the standard delineated by the justices in the Boren case, such a law can be justified only if it is substantially related to an important governmental interest.

Among the few laws that satisfied this test was a California law that punished sex with an underage female but not with an underage male as a way to reduce the risk of teen pregnancy.

These are only some of the Supreme Court cases in which Ginsburg played a prominent part as a lawyer. She handled many lower-court cases as well. She had plenty of help along the way, but everyone recognized her as the key strategist.

In the century before Ginsburg won the Reed case, the Supreme Court never met a gender classification that it didn’t like. Since then, sex-based policies usually have been struck down.

I believe President Clinton was absolutely right in comparing Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s efforts to those of Thurgood Marshall, and in appointing her to the Supreme Court.The Conversation

Jonathan Entin, Professor Emeritus of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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A classroom at Lucerne Elementary School in Lucerne, California, with social distancing and plexiglass dividers to protect students from the transmission of COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Superintendent Mike Brown.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s been just over a month since the two Northshore school districts began the new school year, becoming the first of Lake County’s districts to open the doors to in-person instruction after months of COVID-19-related closures and challenges.

After the first month in session, the superintendents of both districts – Mike Brown in Lucerne and Dr. Giovanni Annous in Upper Lake – say that, so far, so good, with parents happy to have their children back in class, teachers glad to be with their students and the children getting back into the traditional learning environment, with the benefits of interaction not just with teachers but with their classmates.

Reopening Lucerne Elementary School District and Upper Lake Unified was the work of months for staff and administrators.

There were necessary and expensive adaptations, including reducing class sizes, installing new hand sanitizer stations around school grounds, regular rounds of school playground disinfection, increasing the number of bus runs, shorter school days, plexiglass cubicles and teaching stations, masking, staggering lunch hours and, much to the delight of the children, more chances to move the learning environment outdoors.

In describing the return to school, “The adjective that I use is ‘amazing’,” said Upper Lake Elementary Principal Stephanie Wayment.

She said everyone is happy and joyful to be able to be on campus. “They’re celebrating each other’s successes,” she said, adding that the return to school has been really good for everyone’s social and emotional development.

Once the doors were open, there were still more challenges. In the midst of this first month back to school, there have been massive wildland fires in Lake County and around the region that caused classes to be canceled at Lucerne Elementary on Aug. 25 because of air quality.

In Upper Lake, where the schools have a new HVAC system, Annous said it was challenging but they lost no school days, instead recommending that everyone stay indoors on the days with the worst air quality ratings.

Also in August, the state issued a new COVID-19 blueprint for recovery which, for some counties, meant schools couldn’t reopen for in-person classes. However, locally, it had no impact on the schools because Lake County’s case numbers have remained comparatively low.

Both Brown and Annous said their efforts have gained them the attention of parents in other districts who want their students back on campus.

“We’ve got a lot of parents requesting interdistrict transfers,” said Brown.

However, both he and Annous said so far they’ve turned away bringing new students into the districts in order to keep class sizes small because of the need for social distancing.

Because of the limitations of the state reopening guidelines, neither of the districts have begun organized sporting activities again, the superintendents said.

As of this week, all four of the county’s other school districts – Kelseyville, Konocti, Lakeport and Middletown – are still in distance learning mode but report actively working on how to transition back to having children and teachers in classrooms.

And on Thursday, Mendocino College said it is extending remote instruction for its students through Spring 2021.

Students at Lucerne Elementary School in Lucerne, California, use handwashing stations. Photo courtesy of Superintendent Mike Brown.

‘A good start’ for Lucerne

Lucerne Elementary and Upper Lake Unified both started classes on Aug. 12, with the districts also offering a distance learning option for parents who wanted it.

“It was a good start. It was as magical as ever,” said Brown.

He said the little kids arrived in their brand new school clothes and waited in line as temperatures were taken, a process that got quicker every day.

Brown said people have been happy to see the school reopen.

In Lucerne, the changes they’ve implemented include serving lunch in the cafeteria at four different times so the children can be spaced apart for social distancing. “They’re talking and enjoying themselves,” Brown said.

For some of the younger classes, the school has small desks that can be taken outside and placed on the lawn. Brown said they’ve also moved a set of bleachers under the large and shady mulberry trees so classes can enjoy an outside learning area, and a lot of the teachers are taking advantage of the opportunity to go outside.

He said eating lunch and outdoor recreational activities are the only places the children can’t mask. “It’s a nice break for them to be able to get out and take that mask off.”

Brown said that the school started the year with about 85 of its students in the distance learning program and about 200 attending in person, which is close to last year’s enrollment numbers.

To keep classroom sizes small, Brown said they moved intervention teachers into the classrooms on regular teaching assignments and also hired a new teacher.

In the weeks since Lucerne Elementary started, Brown said they’ve made some adjustments to improve safety protocols.

He said they are expecting numerous students to return for in-person instruction early in October, at the end of the quarter. “Distance learning is not working out so well for some of them and others just want to return.”

If there was a wrench in the spokes, he said, it was the school’s bond construction project to build new classrooms, which had delays and required moving half a dozen teachers and their classrooms around the campus.

Brown said the cement for new sidewalks in key areas of the campus were poured the week before classes started. The project overall had been pushed back over the summer due to delays with moving key electrical equipment.

A new double kindergarten classroom with connecting bathrooms is supposed to be ready at about the start of November. Once that’s done, Brown said they will move other teachers so the next phase of the construction can take place, the removal of old modulars by Country Club Drive, which will be replaced with new classrooms.

He said the pandemic is illustrative of how important schools – especially teachers – are to the economy.

“I hope it’s not a lesson that’s soon forgotten,” he said.

Kindergarteners at Lucerne Elementary School in Lucerne, California, watching their new classroom being built on Wednesday, August 26, 2020. Photo courtesy of Karen Glover.

‘100-percent dedication’

At Upper Lake Unified, Annous praised his staff for their efforts to work together and make changes that would keep students safe in an atmosphere where COVID-19 remains a major concern.

He credited them with having “full-on, 100-percent dedication” as well as resiliency.

Like Lucerne, Upper Lake is offering families the option of distance learning.

For the elementary school, 55 percent, or 188 children, are learning on-site, while another 154 children, the remaining 45 percent, are using the distance education option, he said.

At the middle school, Annous said it’s a 47 percent, or 88 children, on-campus versus 53 percent, or 100 children earning from home. The high school has roughly the same percentages, which equals 136 students in classrooms and 156 children distance learning.

“It’s going really well,” said Wayment. “Everybody is acclimating and working together collaboratively and maintaining all of their safety precautions.”

Wayment said she believes the return to school has been a success. “Everybody’s very happy to be back.”

She said all children and staff are wearing masks, and parents have all been very positive and patient, grateful for their students to have options to either be on campus or at home.

Class size reductions have been key to making it work because of the need for social distancing. Annous said before the pandemic, they had a districtwide class size average of between 22 to 32 students. Now, it’s between 12 and 15.

Another critical aspect is equipment. Annous said that they started the school year with 15,000 disposable masks, along with 2,000 face shields for staff, who get a new face shield every Monday.

Annous has personally spent his evenings and weekends in the high school shop fabricating custom, fit-to-order table dividers, shields and plexiglass teaching zones requested by staff.

Upper Lake Unified Superintendent Dr. Giovanni Annous has spent evenings in the school shop fabricating custom, fit-to-order table dividers, shields and teaching zones as requested by district staff. Photo courtesy of Dr. Giovanni Annous.

The district also started the year equipped with 300 gallons of hand sanitizer which is distributed among classrooms, where 100 disposable masks also are kept at any one time, he said.

Annous said the district has 123 thermometers on hand for checking students’ temperatures when they get to school in the morning.

The district’s John Deere tractor, equipped with a fogger, sprays down picnic tables and playground equipment as many as three times a day, between breaks and events. Annous said the school district buses also get fogged with disinfectant.

Annous said they made a major change in the structure of school days, creating cohorts for students. Children now attend a 90-minute block for the first three periods of the school day while pushing the middle and high schools to a later start.

They now do two bus runs per route morning and evening to allow for fewer children – as few as eight with a maximum of 14 – on the bus at any one time, Annous said.

The district also is continuing its food delivery to students who remain at home distance learning, he said.

One minor adjustment the district made since opening school is to make every Wednesday a minimum day; previously, two Wednesdays a month had been minimum days. Annous said that extra time is used by staff to help support students on distance learning.

Annous said a teacher had told him how she had been concerned when first coming back, but as classes got underway she started to feel normalized and focused on the academics.

He emphasized the need for an emotional sense of safety for students and teachers.

Earlier this month, the district used Zoom and Facebook Live to host back to school nights for parents, with teachers getting the chance to talk about the transition back to the classroom.

Wayment said that at the end of the first grading period they are planning to introduce more changes, with additional students to return to campus.

Annous said they now have families who are on distance learning who are on a waiting list to transition back to campus.

However, Wayment said that because of social distancing requirements they may not immediately be able to accommodate all of the families interested in sending their children back to school.

Annous said he can’t put into words the gratitude he feels for his staff and their efforts. “Without that, we could never have been where we are today.”

While management can make decisions and leadership strategies, the staff, Annous said, “are the ones who take charge of it” and make sure it happens.

He added that the return to school – and meeting the challenges that went along with it – couldn't have been done without the “Upper Lake Strong” mindset, with everyone coming together.

Plexiglass “teaching zones” built by Upper Lake Unified Superintendent Dr. Giovanni Annous, shown in a district classroom. Photo courtesy of Dr. Giovanni Annous.

Charter and Christian schools reopen doors; other districts make plans

In the weeks since Lucerne and Upper Lake reopened their doors, other districts have continued planning to do the same while also dealing with air quality issues and, in the south county, evacuations due to the LNU Lightning Complex.

Middletown Christian School reported that it went back to school for in-person instruction on Aug. 17.

On Sept. 2 Lake County International Charter School in Middletown reopened for in-person instruction, and on Monday began its full cohorts with 12 to 14 students per classroom, said Director Gwendolyn Maupin-Ahern.

“We are doing OK, but it is definitely a challenge doing a hybrid model where students are both online learning while others are also present in the classroom,” she said, adding, “We are working out the kinks. Our staff is amazing, creative and resilient.”

Konocti Christian Academy in Lakeport returned to in-person classes on Monday.

Meredith Wiser, KCA’s president and interim principal, said the school’s board of directors and staff worked together to develop a COVID-19 preparedness plan for safely instructing students this fall.

“Our goal is to provide an excellent Christ-centered education in a safe learning environment. KCA will continue to comply with local Public Health orders, governor’s orders and other laws,” she said.

Other districts around the county continue to hold classes virtually while continuing to evaluate transitioning back to the more traditional classroom model.

At Kelseyville Unified, Superintendent Dave McQueen said his district staff will determine on Friday whether it can meet the state guidelines to safely begin the hybrid learning model, a blend of in-person and distance learning.

If the district determines that it can meet those guidelines, the earliest Kelseyville Unified schools could be back to in-person instruction with a modified schedule would be Oct. 5. McQueen said he will make a public announcement once a decision has been made.

Middletown Unified School District began distancing learning classes on Sept. 3 after the LNU Lightning Complex and the related south county evacuations caused a necessary delay from its planned Aug. 24 start for school.

In a letter to parents, Superintendent Michael Cox reported that the district leadership team met on Tuesday morning to discuss and evaluate the reopening of schools. “I know it’s only been eight days, but we want to prepare for re-opening and creating a safe and secure learning environment where students can learn best, in our school. It is our goal to have a return to school in person as soon as it is safe and feasible to do so for all involved.”

Cox said the district’s leadership team will meet every two weeks to discuss and evaluate when students can return to school and will communicate their progress after each meeting.

“The leadership team has identified concerns and we are building a rubric that will be shared so you can see the progress we are making,” Cox said. “We will also be soliciting feedback from staff/families and community members using data to move forward in our re-opening efforts.”

He added, “This is a living document and process,” and it will change based on stakeholder input and guidelines from the California Department of Education and Lake County Public Health Department guidelines.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The US Forest Service said the August Complex is continuing to scorch more acreage across three national forests in very dry conditions, with the massive lightning complex expected to be fully contained in about two months.

On Thursday, the Forest Service said the complex – which began a month ago following a round of lightning storms – had grown to 839,175 acres, with containment remaining at 30 percent.

It is burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests.

Officials said 35 structures have been destroyed and another 1,595 are threatened.

The Forest Service said Thursday that the complex is expected to be fully contained on Nov. 15.

In the South Zone of the August Complex, evacuation orders are in effect for Mendocino, Glenn and Lake counties, officials said. In Lake County, the evacuation orders cover Pillsbury Ranch and the entire Lake Pillsbury basin. Evacuation information is available here.

A virtual community meeting to discuss the complex’s South Zone – which includes the Doe fire area that burned into Lake County – is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday. It will be live-streamed on the Mendocino National Forest Facebook page.

The Thursday report on the complex said its South Zone continues to steadily spread toward the southwest while containment increases on the eastern side.

Weeks of record temperatures and limited precipitation have expanded severe drought conditions across much of the area. Due to these conditions, the Forest Service said growth is expected to continue on the complex even with the chance of rain in the forecast over the next few days.

In the Yuki and Sanhedrin Wilderness areas, the fire will continue to move toward the Lake Pillsbury area, and to the west beyond the Impassable Rock area, officials said.

In the Lake Pillsbury area, crews and dozers connected fire line to previously constructed fire lines from the 2018 Ranch fire. Structure protection groups are committed to building fire lines and removing vegetation around private property and critical communications infrastructure, the Forest Service said.

Cal Fire personnel are assigned to assist with operations in the southwestern corner of the fire. If necessary, a tactical burnout around structures in the area may take place. Officials said this is done in order to prevent the main fire from spreading rapidly toward structures.

In the Elder Creek area, additional containment has been obtained as crews continue mop-up operations with a focus on having this area of the fire contained within a few more days, officials said.

Vegetation interior to the perimeter of the fire and near the eastern edge of the fire continues to smolder and produce smoke. The Forest Service said control lines in the area of Salt Creek are holding well.

Officials said humidity is expected to increase, with a slight chance of rain Thursday and Friday. Temperatures in the area of the fire will remain in the upper 60s to the mid-70s. Southwesterly winds are forecast as a low-pressure system moves through.

The August Complex as mapped on Thursday, September 17, 2020. Map courtesy of the US Forest Service.
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Better weather conditions are helping firefighters as they try to slow the growth of the August Complex and protect structures across the fire area.

The Forest Service reported on Friday that the August Complex was up to 824,118 acres on all of its zones, a rollback of about 15,000 acres from the Thursday estimate, due to mapping. Containment remained at 30 percent.

The complex, burning in the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests, has destroyed 35 structures and is threatening approximately 1,395 more, officials said.

To date, it has resulted in one fatality of a firefighter – which was the result of a vehicle crash on Aug. 31 – and 11 injuries.

Officials said a cold front moving onshore is expected to bring higher humidity, more cloud cover and isolated showers to the area, although warmer conditions are forecast to return next week.

The Forest Service said structure defense remains a priority; indirect line construction, away from the fire’s edge; direct line construction and tactical firing operations, applying fire on
the ground to remove vegetation and widen containment lines.

Officials said Friday that the fire has crossed north of Rattlesnake Ridge and firefighters are conducting structure protection efforts in the Forest Glen area. Crews were assessing the Trinity Pines/Post Mountain area for structure defense.

Structure defense continues in Ruth Valley and Hettenshaw Valley with structure preparation ongoing in Kettenpom Valley, officials said.

Tactical firing operations also continued on Horse Ridge, west toward Ruth Valley to check northerly progression of the fire. Direct and indirect control lines have been constructed from Zenia Road east of the East Fork of the Eel River to Mad River Ridge, the Forest Service said.

On the northeast perimeter in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, officials said good progress has been made and crews continue to reinforce the containment line along the 35 Road. Established containment lines in this area are being actively monitored.

In the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness along Wrights Ridge, the August Complex North and South Zones continue to merge, therefore it is not safe to put firefighters in the area, officials reported.

Better weather conditions – with higher humidity and cloud cover – are aiding firefighters good air quality is expected to the west of the complex with improving conditions expected south of the fire.

The August Complex as mapped on Friday, September 18, 2020. Map courtesy of the US Forest Service.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – School officials said Thursday that a preschooler in Kelseyville has tested positive for COVID-19.

In a letter to staff and the community, Kelseyville Unified Superintendent Dave McQueen said his district was informed that a preschool student in the Lake County Office of Education preschool, which is located at Kelseyville Elementary School, tested positive for the virus.

“Although this program is located on the Kelseyville Elementary School campus, it is not administered by KVUSD. No staff from KVUSD were in contact with this student,” McQueen said.

Separately, Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg said in a message posted to the Lake County Office of Education website on Thursday that his office sent a letter to the parents and guardians of the facility – which he didn’t identify – notifying them that a student had tested positive.

“The preschool cohort will be closed for 14 days after the last date of known exposure to give those who had exposure, a chance to quarantine. The physical building will be closed for the remainder of this week for deep cleaning and disinfecting,” Falkenberg said.

Falkenberg said the student in question has no symptoms.

“We will continue to work with our public health department, and partner agencies in addressing COVID-19 issues as they arise within our LCOE programs,” Falkenberg said.

The Office of Education operates eight preschool sites around the county.

Its preschools give enrollment priority to 4-year-olds, followed by 3-year-olds. If room is available, 5-year-olds who are not age eligible for kindergarten can be accepted.

Falkenberg said his agency chose to open the doors to its preschools based on the current data that suggests that younger children are at less risk of severe illness from COVID-19, as well as other factors like the county’s caseload status, and the Office of Education’s ability to meet all local and state guidelines.

Based on demographics released earlier this week, Lake County Public Health said that 40 local children from birth to age 12 have tested positive for COVID-19, accounting for less than 10 percent of the county’s cases to date. That youngest age group has the fewest cases in the county to date.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As the LNU Lightning Complex reaches the one-month mark, Cal Fire has given its last update on the incident, which it said will be fully contained next month.

The LNU Lightning Complex is listed as the fourth-largest wildland fire incident in recorded California history.

It began Aug. 17 following lightning storms that passed over the region, eventually burning into six counties.

On Wednesday night, it remained at 363,220 acres, with containment up to 98 percent.

The complex has claimed a total of five lives – three in Napa County, two in Solano – and resulted in four injuries to civilians, with one firefighter also hurt, according to Cal Fire.

At one point, it had led to evacuations of tens of thousands of residents across several counties, with about 7,000 people in southern Lake County forced to leave their homes.

Damage assessments to date have reported that it destroyed 1,491 structures – including nine in Lake County – and damaged 232 others.

The Hennessey fire, which burned across Colusa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Yolo counties, has burned 305,651 acres and was 98 percent contained as of Wednesday night, Cal Fire said.

On the west side of the complex, Cal Fire the Walbridge fire near Healdsburg has burned 55,209 acres, with Cal Fire reporting containment at 98 percent. The Meyers fire near Jenner was fully contained earlier this month at 2,360 acres.

Cal Fire said Wednesday night’s update was its final one on the incident, which officials expect to be fully contained on Oct. 1.

Two water tenders and 98 personnel remain assigned to the incident, working on final containment and fire suppression repairs, Cal Fire reported.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
A progression map of the Hennessey fire portion of the LNU Lightning Complex in Northern California, courtesy of Cal Fire. The legend shows the dates that specific areas burned.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – After weeks of unhealthy air quality, conditions began to improve this week, with the Lake County Air Quality Management District reporting that the weather is helping clear the air.

During the past month, multiple fires – including the August Complex in the Mendocino National Forest, the North Complex Fire burning in the Plumas National Forest, the Red Salmon Complex burning in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, and many other fires in Northern California and Oregon – created smoke impacts throughout Lake County and other parts of California.

Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said particulate levels in Lake County are in the “good” range.

He said current winds are favorable for air quality, keeping smoke intrusions into the Lake County air basin to a minimum.

Gearhart said all areas of Lake County are forecast to have “good” to “moderate” air quality through Sunday but should be prepared for periods of “unhealthy” conditions should winds shift and smoke return.

The smoke plumes are remaining elevated and to the northeast of the air basin, Gearhart said.

For current air quality conditions visit the Purple Air map.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. – Mendocino College will continue remote instruction through the spring 2021 semester, Superintendent/President Tim Karas said this week.

“After multiple discussions with staff, faculty and administrative leadership, the evaluation of guidelines by local and state health agencies, and recommendations from the State Chancellor’s Office, the decision has been made to continue holding most classes through a remote environment next term in order to protect the health and safety of our students, employees, and community,” Karas said.

As with the fall 2020 semester, a limited number of on-ground courses will be held, such as science labs, and will follow social distancing guidelines.

Some classes are also being taught using the hybrid model, which includes a mix of face-to-face and online instruction.

“We are making the call to continue mostly remote instruction at this time so that our faculty have enough time to prepare for high-quality classes for the upcoming term,” said Vice President of Academic Affairs Debra Polak. “It is our hope that as we get closer to the start of the spring semester we can build upon the primarily online schedule with more on-ground classes. We will be actively monitoring the situation and will base those decisions on advice from public health agencies.”

Mendocino College provides a host of online support and services geared toward student success, including free tutoring, books, tuition, and more.

More than half the students who attend Mendocino College qualify for some form of financial aid and many meet the guidelines that eliminate unit fees completely, regardless of their financial situation through the Mendocino College Promise Program.

Currently, enrolled students can register for spring classes using MyMendo beginning Nov. 21.  New students can apply now online on the college’s website.

The spring 2021 semester officially begins Jan. 19, 2021.

To make a counseling appointment, students can email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif – The Lake County Office of Education will be offering Learning Hubs throughout Lake County to assist students and their families with educational resources.

This is a collaborative effort with the Lake County Office of Education, the local school districts and other partnering organizations such as the Clearlake Youth Center, County of Lake and community centers.

The Learning Hubs are open to grades TK-12th and can hold a various amount of students, depending on the size of the location to ensure Public Health guidelines are being followed.

“We want to provide kids with connectivity, a tutor to help them with learning if necessary and give them the social and emotional support that they need,” Deputy Superintendent of Schools Cynthia Lenners said.

Each hub will be accessible at various times and days of the week and will stay available for as long as necessary. A few of the participating centers include the Clearlake Youth Center, Lower Lake Museum, Spring Valley Community Center and Behavioral Health Offices.

“It is crucial that each and every student in our community has the resources they need to be able to learn and to do so effectively,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg.

Each location will provide Internet access, a site and school district representative, and if possible scheduled transportation and food.

All Learning Hubs will ensure any visitors complete a self-wellness check and sign in, provide the appropriate district with attendance reporting documentation, wear masks and deep clean once a day.

Learning Hubs will start becoming available as soon as this week and continue to roll out as more locations and staffing becomes available.

“COVID-19 has brought and continues to bring numerous obstacles to Lake County. With Learning Hubs in place, we can work through some of these challenges,” Falkenberg said.

For a list of what is offered and all participating agencies, please visit www.lakecoe.org/LearningHubs.
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This latest image of Jupiter, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 25 August 2020, was captured when the planet was 653 million kilometers from Earth. Hubble's sharp view is giving researchers an updated weather report on the monster planet's turbulent atmosphere, including a remarkable new storm brewing, and a cousin of the Great Red Spot changing color - again. The new image also features Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team.

This latest image of Jupiter, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on Aug. 25 was captured when the planet was 653 million kilometers from Earth.

Hubble's sharp view is giving researchers an updated weather report on the monster planet's turbulent atmosphere, including a remarkable new storm brewing, and a cousin of the Great Red Spot changing color – again. The new image also features Jupiter's icy moon Europa.

A unique and exciting detail of Hubble's new snapshot appears at mid-northern latitudes as a bright, white, stretched-out storm moving at 563 kilometers per hour. This single plume erupted on Aug. 18 and another has since appeared.

While it's common for storms to pop up in this region, often several at once, this particular disturbance appears to have more structure behind it than observed in previous storms. Trailing behind the plume are small, counterclockwise dark clumps also not witnessed in the past. Researchers speculate this may be the beginning of a longer-lasting northern hemisphere spot, perhaps to rival the legendary Great Red Spot that dominates the southern hemisphere.

Hubble shows that the Great Red Spot, rolling counterclockwise in the planet's southern hemisphere, is ploughing into the clouds ahead of it, forming a cascade of white and beige ribbons. The Great Red Spot is currently an exceptionally rich red color, with its core and outermost band appearing deeper red.

Researchers say the Great Red Spot now measures about 15 800 kilometers across, big enough to swallow the Earth. The super-storm is still shrinking, as noted in telescopic observations dating back to 1930, but its rate of shrinkage appears to have slowed. The reason for its dwindling size is a complete mystery.

Researchers are noticing that another feature has changed: the Oval BA, nicknamed by astronomers as Red Spot Jr., which appears just below the Great Red Spot in this image. For the past few years, Red Spot Jr. has been fading in color to its original shade of white after appearing red in 2006. However, now the core of this storm appears to be darkening to a reddish hue. This could hint that Red Spot Jr. is on its way to reverting to a color more similar to that of its cousin.

Hubble's image shows that Jupiter is clearing out its higher-altitude white clouds, especially along the planet's equator, which is enveloped in an orangish hydrocarbon smog.

Jupiter's icy moon Europa is visible to the left of the gas giant. Europa is already thought to harbor a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust, making this moon one of the main targets in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth.

In 2013 it was announced that the Hubble Space Telescope discovered water vapor erupting from the frigid surface of Europa, in one or more localized plumes near its south pole. ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, a mission planned for launch in 2022, aims to explore both Jupiter and three of its largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.

Hubble also captured a new multiwavelength observation in ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared light of Jupiter on Aug. 25, which is giving researchers an entirely new view of the giant planet.

Hubble's near infrared imaging, combined with ultraviolet views, provides a unique panchromatic look that offers insights into the altitude and distribution of the planet's haze and particles. This complements Hubble's visible-light picture that shows the ever-changing cloud patterns.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A puppy has joined the dogs available to new homes at Clearlake Animal Control this week.

The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.

“Beans.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Beans’

“Beans” is a female terrier mix puppy with a short white coat with black markings.

She is dog No. 4216.

“Bella.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Bella’

“Bella” is a female American Bully mix.

She has a short beige and tan coat.

She is dog No. 3537.

“Boog.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Boog’

“Boog” is a senior male American Bully mix with a short brown and white coat.

He is dog No. 4012.

“Diesel.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.


‘Diesel’

“Diesel” is a male border collie mix with a black and white coat.

He is dog No. 4023.

“Jack.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Jack’

“Jack” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short yellow coat.

He is dog No. 4155.

“Lady.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Lady’

“Lady” is a female German Shepherd mix.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 3683.

The shelter is open by appointment only due to COVID-19.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The US Forest Service will host a virtual community meeting to update area residents on the ongoing efforts to contain the August Complex South Zone.

The meeting will take place online beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17.

It will be live-streamed on the Mendocino National Forest Facebook page.

The lightning-caused complex, which began Aug. 17, had burned 817,952 acres and was 30-percent contained as of Wednesday night, the Forest Service said.

Officials said it has burned 35 structures, with another 400 buildings threatened.

The complex is burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests.

The Forest Service said that approximately 1,804 personnel are assigned to the complex, which is the largest wildland fire incident in recorded California history.

For those who would like to submit questions ahead of time, email them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

During the live event participants also can ask questions in the comment section on the Facebook page.

The Forest Service said the speakers will attempt to answer as many questions as they can during the live event.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.


A map of the August Complex in Northern California, courtesy of the US Forest Service.

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